No Faith Within the Mad Crowd

Human nature is a mystery.  Or, is it?  What makes people react without thinking through the situation?  Today, why do people take to the streets without thought of the truth or reality?  The good is made to be bad and the thousands honor the fallen thief.  With the media feeding the masses for their own personal gain, the masses go to the streets to loot and destroy those that will do anything to protect them.  It grieves me to see what we are in the twenty first century.  It is the century of greed with a few controlling the masses for the profit of the few. 

William Wordsworth wrote these lines in “Lines Written in Early Spring” in 1798.

        “And much it grieved my heart to think

        What man has made of man."

In my Bible study this week (Numbers 13 – 14), I see men without faith destroy man.  Following sensationalism and choosing to believe the bad report, men destroyed themselves.  Instead of holding to their faith, they lose themselves revolting with the masses.   Death followed.

Finally, the children of Israel reach the Promised Land.  Moses sends a leader from each of the twelve tribes to spy out the land.  For forty days, the twelve travel and marvel at the land of “milk and honey.” (Numbers 13:27)  They see large cities with great walls, the harvest of the fruits and vegetables, and the giants from the descendants of Anak (Numbers 13:21-33).  Before returning, they cut a cluster of grapes that is carried on a pole by two men.  They pick pomegranates and figs to show the bounty of food in the land.  The twelve return with two different opinions.

After traveling through the desert and depending on God for food and water, the spies are in awe of all they see in the Promised Land.  Imagine.  These men have been in the desert where there was no water.  It was God who fed them and provided water.  Their meals were mana and the meat of doves provided by God daily.  Grapes, figs, and pomegranates do not grow in the desert.  Yes, imagine!  The twelve were like children in a candy store!  Like me in a chocolate factory!  There was plenty of food.  The trees gave shade and the land was fertile.  They viewed the land from the mountain top and saw green.  They have not seen green since Egypt.  There were seas and rivers.  Water! The cities were rich and filled with men of great stature.  Yes! The spies were excited and ready to share the news of the Promised Land.

The men carrying the branch of grapes on a pole between them raises the grapes high so all can see.  The figs and pomegranates are displayed for all the tribes to see.  In the excitement, Caleb proclaims, “Let us go at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”(13:30) Then, the ten shake their heads as in awe and fear of the great walled cities and the giants within the cities.  They shout out to the tribes that there is no way they can go into the land and take it.  Caleb is one voice of faith knowing God has already given them the land.  The one voice of faith is drowned out with the bad reports of impossibilities.  All night, the people cry and decide to elect a new leader to take them back to Egypt.  Then, when Joshua and Caleb try to reason truth with the crowd, the crowd set out to stone them.  Forgetting all God has done for them, they are a mob seeking to destroy the ones delivering truth.

Moses steps in and the ten men giving the bad report are punished.  Everyone over twenty years old will never enter the Promised Land.  The mob is still not hearing the truth and decides to go into the Promised Land and take it.   They march over the mountain to go into the land, and they are defeated.  Time and time again they hear the truth and do not believe.  With no repentance and no faith, they are lost forever.  Man destroying man with no thought for the future.

The lack of faith in God left the children of Israel to wonder for forty years in the desert. 

Where are we today? 

While crowds take to the streets without thought of consequences and without acknowledging what is true, the media and a few groups gain riches.  People are not thinking.  They are reacting to words.  People are placing their faith in the media, politicians, and opinions instead of truth.  They find no room for reality.  There is no repentance.  They are lost with no faith.  

Today, it grieves my heart to see what man is doing to man.  My prayer is for men of faith to come together to pray and unit our nation as one.   May our nation follow the truth with the crowds turning to God.

“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”  James 1:16  (KJV)